Chief financial officers and senior comptrollers want more options for selecting audit firms, according to a survey released by one of those auditing firms, Grant Thornton.
GT found that 56 percent of the 221 financial executives it polled said there were too few auditing firms to ensure competition. Meanwhile, 69 percent of the respondents said that more competition in the auditing industry would increase the quality of service and decrease the price.
Grant Thornton competes with the Big Four accounting firms for audit engagements, especially for large public companies. According to the survey, 52 percent of the respondents said that institutional investors care about the company's choice of external audit firms.
At the same time, 40 percent of the respondents said the market reacts negatively to a change in external audit firm. However, 38 percent of the CFOs and senior comptrollers polled consider only four auditing firms to be global organizations.
